The Beginning of the End of Darkness
by Tonymorgan92
Summary: I'm back to finish a story i haven't touched in over 8 years. If any of my old fans our out there, ill be finishing this story. If you've never read the first 2 in the trilogy look up "The worst summer and the best year" and "The Fall of The Dark Lord" and read them first!
1. Chapter 1: Author's Note

It's been almost 8 years since I have sat down and done this. I hope any of my old readers are still out there. I had to make a new account because I can't for the life of me remember the email or password I used to use (8 years is a long time).

I recently re-read all of my old stories and I really don't think it was fair to my readers that I left off where I did in the last story of the gift of life trilogy. So for anyone who was a fan back when I was writing or just recently found my stories and read them, I'm just here to announce that I'm back. And hopefully what is to come blows the lid off of what I used to write. I had a lot of followers back in the day and hopefully some of them are still around, and if not hopefully I can gain some new ones.

The gift of life trilogy will soon be back in full swing, I'm going to set out and finish what I started 9  
Years ago. And hopefully the support stays strong.

I love all of you guys who supported me back in the day and hopefully some are still here.

So if you're reading, holly, Michelle, this last leg of Harry's journey is dedicated to you guys because if you're still reading after 8 years you deserve some recognition.


	2. Chapter 2: The Legend

_**Previously…**_

_**Over the next few months Becky and Bellatrix returned to normal, now that Ron's reign was over, Harry was sure that most of the danger the wizarding world had been in was over too.**_

_**Harry's department rounded up and executed the last of the Death Eaters, it seemed extreme to kill them all, but Harry didn't want to take the chance of Voldemort returning and the Death Eaters returning to him.**_

_**Mark and Holly graduated Hogwarts at the top of their class and both decided to attend the next year of Hogwarts.**_

_**The next year, Mark and Holly were made Head Boy and Head Girl, much to Hermione's delight, and then they graduated seventh year at the top of their class.**_

_**Straight out of Hogwarts, a scout drafted Mark onto Puddlemere United; there he performed so well that he was chosen to be the national seeker in the World Cup.**_

_**After becoming as rich and famous as his father, Holly moved in with Mark and they inhabited a large house on the outskirts of London.**_

_**Soon, Holly became pregnant and they had a daughter, Erica.**_

_**Mark, even though he had to travel a lot, was home so much it seemed like he had an ordinary job, he always made time for his family.**_

_**Whenever Holly and Mark needed time alone, Harry and Hermione were overjoyed to stay with their granddaughter. **_

_**Hermione soon retired from the modeling business and Harry from his job.**_

_**But there was still one more step in Mark and Holly's relationship…**_

_**Mark hardly heard any of the minister's speech, he was too captivated in Holly's eyes.**_

_**But eventually, he found himself saying, "I do"**_

_**He heard his mother burst into tears as he kissed Holly with all the passion he could generate.**_

"_**I love you," he whispered in her ear as he led her down the isle and out of the church to the waiting limo.**_

**Chapter 1: The Legend**

**There is a legend I must tell you of because this story will not be understood otherwise…**

**An outbreak has happened in the 6 months since **_**The Fall of the Dark Lord, **_**an outbreak of devout followers of the old Dark Arts. The Dark Arts I am now speaking of are not the mere tricks that Tom Riddle or Ron Weasley performed, I speak of the original Dark, Blackest Magic of the middle ages. **

**The magic of the soulstones of Baal, Diablo, and Mephisto the three demon spirits who were founders of evil, this magic is magic at its darkest; evil itself is not as dark as the magic that I speak of. **

**This is a power that no modern Dark Lord has ever been able to grasp even the theory or knowledge of at any rate.**

**This evil was formed in the fiery forges of hell itself and no one, not a single man alive has ever seen used since the first wizard wars.**

**The magic had been forgotten for three millennia, not even Dumbledore had known of this power, if he had, he would have had no power to stop the darkness that surrounded these Dark Arts.**

**Maybe I should go back and tell the story as it is originally told… eh? **

**Maybe I should read you the story from its Latin Manuscript? Maybe I should, just let me find it here… ah… here it is… now then we begin.**

**This story is legend passed down from generation to generation for more than ten millennia, the year now is **

**One AD and I begin my story now, for peoples of the years to pass must know of this magic, this darkest of sorcery, this evil beyond evil, this indescribable, undefeatable darkness. **

**Six million years ago, in the depths of hell, the three sons of Lucifer father of darkness also called Satan, bore to him by three enslaved mortal women whom he made marital sovereignty with, saw the world and saw that it had many wicked of their native races, creatures and humans alike. **

**These three sons were named the following, Mephisto the eldest, lord over all hatred and conflict betwixt men.**

**The next was Baal the middle conceived, lord over destruction and all war and battle and strife.**

**The last of Lucifer's sons was Diablo, lord of terror, and father of all fears and horrors.**

**Now, these three sons of Lucifer saw what they had bore upon the world, fear and strife and hate.**

**They saw all this and it was good in their eyes.**

**They said among themselves, "Let us take it upon ourselves to keep the world as it is, well in our fathers eyes yet despised in the eyes of the one who calls himself God" they agreed upon this and inquested upon their father how they should make darkness eternal and everlasting. Now Lucifer was cunning and crafty and he knew of many ways to keep the world in the grasp of him and his three offspring. He told them to bind their spirits together in a magical object called the soulstones and send it up to the earth where some man would eventually find it and unlock the secrets of magic at its deepest darkness. Lucifer instructed them on how to do this, but I will not record the formula lest this be read by the wrong eyes that seek power with a lusting heart.**

**Diablo gathered the things needed and brought them to the great hellforge nearest to the lake of fire.**

**Mephisto gathered tools for the hellforge, and Baal who of all the demons of hell was the most skilled with a hammer and tongs crafted the Soulstone using the Horadric Malus a great hammer forged by the angel Isual who was a smith in the heavens before he was twisted by the fears and lies that were fed to him by Diablo.**

**Last, the three demons split their souls and extracted the halves of them to be melded into the stone.**

**Baal melded the spirits of he and his brothers and the time which it took to build the stone of the purest crystal and meld into it the souls and the dark magic which made it work, took a whole of five full moons to complete.**

**Upon the finish, the kin rose their hands and the stone ascended from the fiery depths of hell through the smoky barriers of the weeping an gnashing of teeth to the great space between the gates of hell and the earth, it ascended and once it was in the atmosphere of our world it did not burn, but fell and fell until it hit the world surface and was buried in a cave deep beneath the earth.**

**The kin, Mephisto, and Baal, and Diablo, praised the success of their venture and bowed themselves low and said, "Praise our father who hath had mercy upon our venture, May Lucifer live forever and ever and ever"**

**The brothers then told their father of their finishing and of their worship of him.**

**The kin then went to their lairs and waited for the time when their father saw it fit for man to venture upon their creation.**

**They waited patiently, for they knew that to hurry their father was to risk the threat of losing their own lives at his temper.**

**The waited for a thousand painstaking years for their father to direct a human to their creation.**

**When they were tired of waiting, Baal and Diablo through their deceitful trickery persuaded Mephisto to venture out to their father and see if he had forgotten about their request at all.**

**Mephisto approached his fathers fiery court, small demons and sprites scampering out of the way of his heavy footfalls as they saw the eldest son of their lord marching his castle.**

**Mephisto threw open the doors to Lucifer's halls and strode to his fathers throne room.**

**He inquested the time when his father would see fit to see their request. **

**Lucifer flew into a rage at being questioned by his son and nearly killed the Lord of Hatred, I would say it better if he had finished the murderous deed, but Lucifer found mercy on his son and only gave a penalty to the brothers for their questioning.**

**He gave penalty to them that their request would not be seen for another thousand years.**

**The brothers then became cross at their father and began to hate him in secret, Lucifer who knew all that went on inside his dwelling knew of the secret words of his offspring and became angrier still, but said nothing to them, for he knew that the only way for their soulstone to be activated was for them to be driven to kill a divine being. **

**Lucifer saw that they had grown murderous with waiting and delivered up unto them, Isual the traitorous angel who was master of heavens forge.**

**The brothers, driven mad with rage at their father were indeed murderous and wasted no time at all in ripping open the guts and bowels of Isual in an extremely painful way (for him I mean) they then devoured the bowels and guts and those nasty things of Isual and cried up unto their father.**

**He shew mercy upon them and let venture a human upon their stone, a great knight by the name of **

**Conan. When Conan ventured upon the stone, the demon kin rejoiced heartily and drank blood wine of a thousand people so that they were merry and drunken. In this merry in drunken state they made marital sovereignty unto many mortal women and they bore thousands of offspring, demons and giants, and trolls, and ogres, and creatures of the sort you cannot imagine. **

**Conan took the stone back to his master the lord Zara king of Theoriegn.**

**Now the stone had an attracting power so that a man who found it that had lust for power in his heart would treasure it and love it and keep it.**

**Conan was a pure knight so it did not have effect on him but Zara was a cruel and power hungry man and he was deeply attracted to the stone. He paid Conan half of his royal treasury for the stone and Conan gave it up easily not knowing what was so special about this crystal stone.**

**Zara felt that their was something very magical about this stone so he delivered it up unto his astrologers and astronomers and magicians and high wise men, and paid them well to research the stone and find it's special properties.**

**After years and years, his magicians unlocked the secret magic, and were horrified at what they found. **

**The magicians were pure and good and tried to keep the power from the king but Zara found them out and took the stone from them.**

**When he discovered what it did he called his allies as well as enemies and announced to them that unless they all paid tribute in goods and gold and women to him he would destroy them all.**

**This enraged the countries of the world and they rose in arms against Zara and marched against Theoriegn with an amassed army of 50,000 soldiers, at that time no army of that size had even ever been imagined.**

**When Zara saw this, he laughed at them and said, "As I warned them, they will be destroyed".**

**Zara took the soulstone along with a scroll of magic written by his loyal mages, to the topmost tower and called to them.**

"**I have warned thee, and ye shall see, I do not make hollow threats, see and despair".**

**He stretched his hands over the soulstone and closed his eyes, then he began to chant.**

"**Caya… maasaantayia… alizathura… makuraazark… aliazarth… kaylithia".**

**As Zara chanted his sorcery, the sun began to darken and the skies to blacken.**

**The men began to become terrified beyond their wits.**

**Afterwards it was and still is sometimes said that Diablo helped to spread extra fear around that place.**

**Then a light wind began to blow and the air turned cold.**

**The men gasped as the air grew steadily colder and colder, rain mixed with snow and hail fell as the winds picked up speed and thunder rumbled in the distance. Soon heavy snow and hail were falling and the only light source was from rapid streaks of red lightning that flashed continuously. **

**Zara descended into his castle fortress and made merry dinner and winery until morning came.**

**In the morn Zara ventured from his castle wearing the thickest fur coat he possessed, and he saw that all his land was frozen over yet the light was back, the men of the army were frozen solid and quite dead, for they had come by sea and the sea had frozen so they had been trapped in the land of Zara.**

**When the kin brothers, sons of Lucifer saw what they had wrought they were glad and drank the blood wine of the army killed by Zara.**

**When the kings of the dead soldiers saw what had happened they despaired and paid tribute to Zara in exchange for peace with his country.**

**Yet when the white magicians of Zara's court saw what had happened, they too despaired for they knew what had wrought it, but as long as Zara lived, the stone would not be destroyed.**

**Now as I said before, Zara was a wicked king and everyone hated him, but no one was brave enough yet to try to kill him.**

**After many months of terrible reign by Zara, someone finally stepped forward, the knight Conan, the same **

**Sir. Conan who found the soulstone in the first place. **

**Aided by the archangel Tyrael, Conan snuck into the palace of Zara and cut the royal throat while he slept.**

**Conan then stole the stone and in the dead of night whisked it away to the temple of the White magicians who were called "The Council of the Horadrim Mages" **

**The stone could not be destroyed since it contained the souls of the sons of Lucifer but it could be locked away in the depths of the temple, there it was hidden and is still hidden to this day.**

**But it's powers are locked beneath many Horadrim enchantments.**

**They have sunk the land of Zara's kingdom into the sea, it is now what Greek philosophers inaccurately call "Atlantis" in the heart of an "Atlantian" jungle lies a clearing and in that clearing lay the Horadric temple under many, many layers of earth and magic.**

**It can never be unlocked and even I can never tell you where it is dear reader, pray tell, someone might use it's power for evil again someday.**

**You may think this whole story is pish or posh or whatever you say, but I know it's true, you see, I was there, I found the soulstone so long ago, I watched 50,000 soldiers freeze in battle, and I killed Zara and watched as the soulstone was buried.**

**I Sir. Conan DeLacruise, knight, explorer, conquistador, and Horadrim Mage, have lived on through the magic of my kind, the magic of my fellow mages. However, that magic is dying and I lay on my deathbed even as I write this. If I told you my current age you would not believe me, but it is unimportant of my age, the important this is that whoever reads this manuscript would keep the stone safe and out of reach of those hungry for power.**

**Sir. Conan DeLacruise, knight, explorer, conquistador, Horadrim Mage, knight of the round table, scholar, great magician, philosopher, sometimes called Merlin, dies with these last words to human kind hoping them to be read, remembered, and protected not forsaken.**

**Indeed the legend does not end there, but there are so many stories and branches off of the mainstream that I would not be able to fit them into a book… but the manuscript written by the great Merlin held enough information for you to understand the legend of the soulstone, but indeed it is no mere legend it is true history as we will soon see.**


	3. Chapter 3: Shadows

**Chapter 2: Shadows**

_**Six Months after Fall of The Dark Lord**_

**Mark Potter shot up in bed, his wand already in hand.**

**Something had woken him.**

"**What is it Mark?" his wife asked, stirring from her sleep.**

"**Nothing Holly, go back to sleep" Mark said gently and she laid back down, her silky brown hair falling over her eyes as her head hit the pillow.**

**Mark slipped out of bed silently.**

"**Muffliato" he whispered, pointing his wand at his bare feet.**

**Mark walked silently over the fluffy carpet of the bedroom of the house he and Holly shared with their daughter Erica who had just turned one a week ago.**

**Mark heard another thump downstairs and walked faster, his feet silenced by the spell.**

**He stopped by Erica's door, she was sound asleep in her bed, it was not her that was downstairs.**

**Mark walked towards the top of the stairs and silently stole down to the living room right off the foot of the stairs.**

**Someone was standing in front of the fireplace in the living room.**

**The figure just stood there, doing nothing.**

**Mark just stood there silently, watching, for over five minutes.**

**Suddenly the figure spoke, "If you're going to hex me you might as well do it, I haven't all night" **

**The voice sounded so familiar Mark could burst, "Dad? What are you doing here?" Mark asked.**

**With a wave of his hand Harry Potter started a fire in the grate, and now that Mark could see his fathers face properly he saw that Harry looked tired, and he looked like he hadn't ate or slept in days, his hair was a mess, and his eyes were drooping.**

**Upon closer inspection of Harry's eyes Mark saw that they were darker than they normally were, shadowy if you want to call it that.**

"**What's up Dad?" Mark asked quietly, so as not to wake Holly or Erica.**

**Harry merely gestured toward the sofa, "sit" he croaked.**

**Mark obeyed his father and Harry sat across from him on the other sofa at the other side of the oak coffee table.**

**Harry waved his hand again and the two big oak doors that led into the living room from the stairwell, closed and locked silently.**

**Mark waited patiently for his father to speak, and finally he did.**

"**Baal is on the move" he said simply.**

**This puzzled Mark, "What?" he asked quietly.**

**Harry buried his head in his hands, "Not what son, who, it's a long story" Harry told Mark a long story about three son's of the devil and their ancient magic (though not of the soulstone because obviously he doesn't know about that). He told Mark that Baal was father of war and darkness, he told his son of many things dark and ancient that many, even learned wizards such as Dumbledore, have never known.**

"**How do you know all this Dad?" Mark asked.**

**Harry looked up, "You know that I just returned from a long journey that I went on 4 months ago?" he asked.**

"**Yeah, you left without telling anyone where you were going" Mark replied.**

**Flashback**

_**Four months previously **_

"**But where are you going Harry?" Hermione asked impatiently, the family was sitting in the living room where Harry had just announced that he was leaving on a long journey.**

"**I don't know love, and I don't know when I'll be back, I just feel this overwhelming urge to **_**go**_** like someone planted it there." Harry said.**

**Hermione shook her head, "Sometimes I really don't know about you Harry Potter"**

**Harry spoke again, "I'm sorry Hermione but I have to go, it might be an important calling" he said, with that he kissed her and marched out the front door of their house, leaving Hermione, Holly, Mark, Lily, and baby Erica all quite confused.**

"**Always was a loony bin" Lily whispered quietly, getting dirty looks from everyone in the room.**

**End of flashback**

"**Well," said Harry, "I traveled all over Europe and Asia, I spent a month in Budapest and some time in a village in Bucharest, near the Carpathian mountains, there I read some ancient Celtic and Latin mythology about the three kin of Lucifer, apparently the mythology is very secret and secluded, it's been forgotten over millions of years, a manuscript I read was written by Merlin himself, in Bosnia I read more about the legend but part of Merlin's manuscript was torn off when it was talking about an object called "The Soulstone" apparently it contained such Dark Magic no one but Merlin dared write about it, but the part Merlin wrote disappeared"**

**Harry stopped and took a breath, Mark was captivated with the story and waited for his father to continue.**

"**The soulstone, I don't really know what it is or what it does, all I know is something I heard in Romania about it being hidden in Atlantis. No one ever found it and it's been forgotten over so many years that no one is even looking anymore, but I find a strange attraction to the legend, like it's calling to me. I don't know why, but I've lost many hours of sleep over the last six months researching it. I heard many different versions of the legend in different ancient libraries. The true chronicle is supposedly lost with the Library of Alexandria but that's a myth.**

**I'm sure if anyone found the soulstone the world would descend into another Dark Age or worse, utter chaos.**

**That's why the Council of the Horadrim Mages went through so much to protect the story, and the stone alike.**

**I found the ruins of an ancient Celtic city called "Zatria" and I found some ancient manuscripts in an ancient Celtic language, when translated they told a little about the Chronicles of the Demon Kin, I found few references to "The demon stone" and I suppose that was it. Anyway I have a feeling that someone is searching even harder than me to find the ancient stone and use it to bring about another Dark Age, and the demon kin are helping him."**

**Harry ended his story and Mark whistled through his teeth, "Wow, so that whole story was actually true?" he asked, Harry nodded and Mark whistled again, "But what's all this got to do with me?" he asked.**

**Jaylin hurried down the cold stone steps of the hidden building he'd just found in the ruins of an ancient Roman city.**

**He paused along the way to let his eyes rest on some of the ancient symbols carved into the wall, ones he had been searching for since he was a child who heard the legends at a gypsy camp in Romania.**

**He swept some of his shoulder length grey hair out of his face and inspected the symbols further.**

"**Elixo Eti Diatheke Acko Haima Paroiusa Eti Nikao Eschatos " he read,**

"**With the covenant of blood comes the victorious end" he translated aloud.**

**His eyes lit up, he knew he was getting closer to the treasure he sought.**

"**The covenant of blood" referred to was one of the powers he knew the soulstone to possess, the ability to bestow unimaginable power on the user, at the expense of the blood of another.**

**He hurried down more flights of stairs, breathing more translated words as his eyes darted from wall to wall, reading hurriedly as he flew down the stone steps.**

**When he reached two solid gold doors at the foot of the stairs he flung them open without a second thought to what they were made of, he strode into a huge circular room and looked around.**

**After 65 years of searching, Jaylin had finally found it, The great Lost Library of Alexandria.**

"**But is it true? Is the legend of the Demon Stone really here?" **

**Jaylin looked, he looked, and he looked, throwing many ancient scrolls to the floor in his quest.**

**Not caring about the immense wealth he had discovered, Jaylin only cared about a single book, not a scroll as was the custom then, but a real bounded book, written by Merlin himself.**

**Jaylin searched for three days without food or drink or sleep and searched through millions of ancient scrolls all of high value.**

**He sifted through piles of gold and jewels and there, finally, he found an indenture in the wall, a hole you may call it, with a circle of ancient Greek words around it.**

"**Anthropos Kurois Hamartia Ni Anastasis Acko Eti Haima Cor" was the Celtic.**

"**Mankind's greatest sin is resurrection of the blood stone" Jaylin read.**

**Laughing to himself, Jaylin thrust his hand into his robes and pulled out a piece of wood, shaped like a small bone, and placed it in the indenture in the wall.**

**After a moment of silence, the ground began to shake, and a door in the wall sunk into the ground, great light was emitting from the room behind the wall.**

**Jaylin shielded his eyes but walked forward anyway once his eyes had adjusted, what he saw in the room astounded him.**

**A stone table sat in the center of the otherwise empty room, runes were carved into the table that were so ancient that even Jaylin couldn't read them, yet he knew every ancient language of all, except, "Atlantian" he whispered, running his fingers over the carvings.**

**On the table was the source of the light, a plain, black book sat at the center of the table, lying open, completely clear of dust amazingly.**

**Jaylin touched the book cautiously, and gathering courage, he shut it slowly. As he shut the cover of the book the light faded quickly, and when he lifted it and placed it under his robes, the ground began to shake.**

"**So, you've got your job as Head of the MLE back and now you need my help?" Mark asked his father.**

**Harry nodded, "But only when the time comes, I'll call when I need you, you won't be able to find me, I'll find you.**

**I'm going back to Bucharest to do some more research, I've already visited your mother, I'll call on you when you are needed my son, goodbye" and with those last words to Mark, Harry Potter vanished with a sharp **_**CRACK!**_

**Mark walked to the back of the living room and pulled back the drapes, sunrise flooded into the room as Mark opened the sliding glass patio doors and walked out onto the veranda with a mug of coffee in his hands.**

**All this was confusing, interesting, yet confusing.**

**Mark had never in his life heard a tale of such magnitude, it had only taken a few hours to tell the story, but Mark felt that if he had a thousand years to spare speaking to Merlin himself, he would never know the whole story.**

**It was disturbing to Mark that his father was so delved into this work, never had Harry just up and left, gallivanting across Europe to explore Myths and Legends even if they were true, Harry Potter was a very grounded man and Mark was sure that this was larger than he could imagine if it could call Harry to up and leave.**

**Mark took a sip from his coffee and watched as the sun slowly peeked over the horizon.**

**His head was spinning, all the things his dad had told him were buzzing through his head, if this was all true Mark knew that the world was in for a greater danger than any living being had ever seen in millions of years.**

**After a while, the veranda door slid open, Holly's arms slipped around Mark's waist, and she kissed him on the cheek lightly.**

"**What's up honey?" she asked.**

**Mark shook his head, "Nothing you need to worry about" he replied, "let's go in, it's chilly out here."**

**So Mark and Holly, both still clad in their pajamas walked back into their beautiful home, their own little world of comfort and silence that was about to come crashing in around them.**

**Harry searched frantically through the library's records, looking for any sign of **_**anything **_**about this ancient language.**

**He'd traveled over 10,000 miles of Russian wilderness and snow to get to the library of Pevek.**

**Pevek was the smallest of small towns at the very corner of Russia, but they were famous for their **

"**Library of myths".**

**Harry had looked at over 100 manuscripts already, many of them written by Merlin but none of them had anything to do with the soulstone.**

**Finally, he found a manuscript labeled "Eti Haima Cor" he knew that was Greek for "The Blood Stone" which was one of the many names of the soulstone. **

**Harry quickly discovered that the document was very useful, because someone had scribbled something very minute in the corner.**

**Upon closer inspection Harry read, "**_**Library of Alexandria, located on island 100 miles north of Vatican City" **_

**That was all he needed, Harry flew to the library's main floor and found the cartography section.**

"**Q…R…S…T…U…V" Harry went through the drawers that held the maps until he found V.**

**He flipped through the V section, quickly realizing that there were over 90,000 cities in the world that started with V. He searched the cabinet front to back, top to bottom, but there was no Vatican City. "Damn" he muttered.**

**Harry ran to the computer and typed in a search for "Vatican City Map" it came up after 5 minutes of searching.**

"**Missing" Harry was ready to punch the computer screen in, but being rational, he quickly logged onto the internet.**

"**Vatican City" he whispered as he typed.**

**Just as the search finished though, the computer crashed.**

"**DAMN IT!" Harry screamed, forgetting he was in a library.**

**As he stalked out of the building, many people threw him dirty looks for his vulgar language.**

**Harry quickly apparated out of the small street and landed outside a richly decorated and warm looking house.**

**Harry banged on the door very loudly, he could see lights on inside the house.**

**After a few minutes, a young, blonde and thin woman answered the door.**

"**Harry, welcome back" she said, embracing him warmly.**

"**Hello Nicolina" Harry replied, "is Victor home?"**

**She shook her head, "Not at the moment, why?" she said.**

"**I need to use your library" Harry said, stepping into the house and striding through the large, lavish Krum home, he had stayed with them during his short stay in Bulgaria so he knew their house well.**

**He opened the large copper library doors and stepped in. The library was huge but Harry knew this room better than any other room in the house.**

**Soon he found what he was looking for, "Vatican City, Rome" He muttered, he pulled out a blank piece of parchment and muttered a short and simple spell, after a second the map magically copied onto the blank parchment.**

**Harry quickly thanked Nicolina and apparated to the small Bulgaria national airport, where he bought a first class ticket to Rome.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Sense of What's to Come

**Chapter 4: A Sense of What's to Come**

**"You have proved very useful young jaylin" the dark voice crept from the shadows. "But your usefulness has run dry, and we can not risk you seizing the power for yourself" **

**A puzzled look crossed jaylin's face, but before he had time to register what the man meant, the entire room flashed a bright red, and in the blink of an eye darkness had re-enveloped the room, and the only thing different was the skeleton of what was once a very talented, very bright young wizard, lying motionless on the stone floor. **

**"We have it" the cold voice projected from the corner once again. "We have taken the first step on the path to a power not seen since the time of Zara".**

* * *

**Rome was just as beautiful as Harry remembered it. It dawned on him, that for as beautiful and romantic a place as the Capitol of Italy seemed to be, everything about it was enveloped in darkness. Some of the most violent battles in wizarding history had happened at the gates of Rome herself, some of the darkest legends found their roots inside the walls of this very city, some of the darkest magic had originated in these lands before the time of the Roman Empire. The soil itself seethed an unnatural darkness, but for all of this... Rome was still beautiful. **

**Harry could see the outline of the once great coliseum rising over the horizon sitting right underneath a blanket of stars in the cloudless sky, it was a breathtaking sight. Harry shook his head, he needed to focus, he wasn't here to see the sights. Following the directions he'd been given by his contact at the ministry, Harry headed down a crowded street until he saw it, sitting in plain view, but the muggles kept going like they couldn't even see it. The gilded centurion was a small pub smack in the middle of the old town quarter of the city, one of the only wizarding buildings sitting in the open. Harry pushed the door open and walked in. As usual, he was met with whispers; he picked out "scar" and "hero" among them. He walked calmly to the bar and told the innkeeper that he had a reservation. "Ah yes Mr. Harry Potter" the elderly gentleman said in a suave Italian accent "you are in room 22 right up the stairs and to your left" the man handed Harry his key and went back to his business. Harry took one last look around the seedy bar and shook his head, he'd thought his days of staying in these places were over, but it seemed that his glory days, the days of being a war hero, the days of Harry hunting evil wherever he could find it, we're in fact not quite over yet.**

**The door creaked open on rusty hinges once Harry unlocked it, and upon stepping inside he was met with a smell of dust, alcohol, and stagnant musk. This room was old, that much was clear, this place was no better than the leaky cauldron. The ministry had already sent Harry's provisions ahead of him. Only a select few in the department of Magical Law Enforcement knew where Harry was going or why, in fact it was not even a publicly known fact that he had resumed his position at the ministry. Once he had filled Cho in on everything he had found, she had granted him emergency powers, his old position, and unrestricted ministry clearance to do anything he needed to do. Cho had gone into a fit of panic Harry had seen far too many times, when he'd told her what he knew. She tried to send his entire department to Rome with him, but he told her they would just slow him down and he worked better at this kind of thing alone. Harry had no doubt though, that this time, there was going to be a full scale war if the wrong hands found what he was looking for. One that the wizarding world may not ever recover from. **

**The only thing that kept Harry going was the thought of his family, they'd been through so much, and he didn't want to see another wizarding war in their life time. Harry wasn't a soldier, he may have been branded a "war hero" but he knew, in all reality, he had never fought a real war. Skirmishes and scuffles and battles maybe, but there had never been flat out war. There hadn't been a real war in centuries. Voldemort, Xanatos? They had been evil men, but not even they could instigate a full on war. This scared Harry to his core, those battles had been hard enough, but this... This was an ancient magic that from what he read was darker than anything Voldemort could have ever dreamed. Harry had to do everything in his power to prevent evil men from finding what they sought, he didn't even know what that was yet, he had nothing to go on but a few scraps of paper and some nameless whispers of old gods on the prowl. He would have study and hunt relentlessly if he was to figure out what he was doing. It was times like this when Harry missed Dumbledore, or Sirius. In all likelihood they would have been as lost as he was, but at least he wouldn't have to do this alone. **

* * *

**It was a rolling clap of booming thunder that jolted Hermione awake from the nightmare that had had her squirming in bed. It had been so many years since her captivity at the hands of Voldemort and his death eaters, but she could still remember it clear as day. She could still feel Dolohov's hands on her naked body, still remember Lucius Malfoy bending her over and violently forcing himself inside of her, she could still feel Goyle's breath on the back of her neck, and Wormtail's grubby paws between her legs. It wasn't something she was ever going to forget. **

**She whimpered and reached for Harry, and felt nothing but air, he wasn't there, Hermione was beginning to lose hope that he would be home for a very long time. She'd seen her beloved husband once in 5 months. She understood that he had to do this; she just wished selfishly that it wasn't always him that had to go. She was tired of the constant worries and fears, and just not having her Harry home with her, she longed to just be wrapped in his arms lying next to him, she longed for him to comfort her after her nightmares had set in. She just wanted Harry. **

**Hermione had been having the nightmares more frequently now. She was afraid to sleep, they were becoming more and more real, and she was completely re-immersed in the tragic reality of what had happened to her on that island. Some wounds just never heal, and that must have been one of them. She was constantly stressed, losing weight, her hair was getting grey flecks now, and she just wanted Harry to come home. Hermione stood up and threw her robe around herself and stood up, it was cold, far too cold for a midsummer morning. She walked across the vast master bedroom of the potter mansion, and slid open the gigantic oak door leading into it. The carpet in the bathroom felt warm underneath her feet as it squished between her toes. Another rumble of thunder startled her and the flash of lightning that came next could have killed her. With the room illuminated even just for that split second, shed seen him, she knew it was him, she could never forget that face, skin white as paper, with the beady red eyes, and the slit snakelike nostrils, Hermione could have sworn that shed just seen in the mirror, Voldemort behind her, arms outstretched, ready to take her again. She whirled around wand already in hand, and the lights came on at the wave of her hand, she was ready to fight, but no one was there. **

**As a precautionary measure Hermione waved her wand arm in a complex pattern whispering "reprexo exionum". It was a simple charm Hermione had invented when the children were younger, green smoke leaked from the tip of her wand, forming itself into a perfect floor plan of the house, with one red dot standing in the bathroom, Hermione being that red dot. No one else was in the house. Still, she couldn't help feeling she wasn't alone. After checking that the house was indeed empty and making sure again that the manor was secure, she slipped back up the stairs and into bed. As she drifted off to sleep again, she wondered if being alone in this big empty house was really taking an emotional toll on her. **

* * *

**Mark was literally exhausted, Puddlemere had out the team through a 10 hour practice in preparation for the first game of finals the next week. He slowly descended to the ground; snitch in hand towards the middle of the pitch where the team was already beginning to gather for a few final words before they went home for the night. **

**Before heading off to the showers the team went over a few final plays and tactics for the upcoming game against the Hollyhead harpies. They were good but Puddlemere had been undefeated. The finals were easily in their grasp as long as they could keep ahead long enough to get to the World Cup, where mark had no doubt the final face-off would be against Bulgaria, while they no longer had victor Krum, the team was still a well oiled machine of quidditch perfection, they'd crushed every opponent by a more than adequate score all season. **

**Mark ran his hands through his hair, it was so hard to try to focus on quidditch right now. His dad had just dropped a bombshell on him and suddenly disappeared again without doing too much explanation. Harry ha always been good at disappearing. Mark loved his dad with all his heart but it was easy to see Harry had never let his hero complex die, he still felt like it was his job so save the world. Mark was worried about what it was doing to his mother emotionally, it was plain to see she was a nervous wreck. Harry had just up and vanished for 4 months, out of no where, and then comes home for not even a full night, acting all weird and cryptic before leaving again straight away, no one had any idea when he would be back. **

**All mark had done in the last week since his dad had come back was stress, he'd never seen Harry so worried, so scared as he was that night. Harry potter wasn't afraid of anything, period. That's just how it worked, marks dad was a fearless hero who had put a stop to some of the most evil wizards of all time, Harry had brought a peace to the wizarding world that no one had felt in over 50 years. Mark wanted to question his father's stability, was there any validation to these legends? Or was Harry just lost without some kind of evil to defeat. He shook these thoughts from his head, his dad wasn't losing it, that look in Harry's eye the night back at marks house, no Harry full heartedly believed in whatever it was he was after, an mark had never known his dad's judgment to be bad.**

**Something was definitely stirring, there was a storm brewing. Harry felt it, and Mark was sure that before long the rest of the magical community would feel it too. **

**The scary thing about all this was, this wasn't just some wizard who thought he had the rights to the world, if Harry was right about all this... This was going to be a war against evil itself... Against the devil and his sons. This wasn't even something Mark could fathom. These were the entities of everything that was wrong in the world as they knew it, all powerful, divine beings of the darkness. The creators of the darkest magic known to men and gods alike. If Harry was right, the world was doomed. **

* * *

**Harry woke with a start at the sound of his alarm, he looked over at the red 4:00 AM flashing at him, and reached over and shut it off. Groggily he sat up and collected his bearings. He shook his head and stood up from the roughly put together bed, his back was sore. Muttering curses Harry walked to the bathroom. Splashing cold water on his face, Harry tried to wake up, he had a job to do and he needed an early start. **

**Harry crept down the stairs of the inn, as no one was awake yet, he decided to try a silent exit. Bag slung over his back and broom in hand he exited the back as to not draw attention from whatever muggles may be skulking around outside. The warm Italian air greeted Harry as he stepped into the dark alley way, at least it wouldn't be a cold trip. He looked around to make sure no one was watching, and silently mounted his broom and kicked off. It felt like it had been ages since Harry had actually flown, with the busy day to day bustle it was quicker to apparate everywhere. But Harry had no clue where he was going so that wasn't really plausible. Harry sped north as fast as his old broom could handle, for what seemed like days. Finally Vatican City soared beneath him and he knew that it was now the real journey began. Harry slowed to almost a complete stop, and carefully took his hands off the broom. Reaching carefully into his robes he produced his map and unrolled it. Charting a careful course of where he needed to go, Harry knew he had a long day ahead of him. A very long day. He folded the map and placed it back into his robes, before taking off again full speed setting a course north to where this island was supposed to be. **

**It was mid day before Harry reached the coastline. He looked for over an hour before he finally found his mark, off in the distance he could see a jungle looming on the island. He knew once he arrived, he'd have to make the track on foot, those trees were too high and too thick to be able to fly through and still find what he was looking for.**

**Harry was also weary of any magical defenses the island may have, surely it wasn't this easy to find the library of Alexandria that had been hidden for thousands of years. **

**Safely reaching the island Harry descended and carefully dismounted his broom. He placed it carefully into his enchanted bag that thanks to Hermione's genius would hold far more than it appeared. Harry checked his surroundings, pulled out his wand, took a deep breath, and headed into the jungle. He had no idea what he would find there. **

* * *

**It seemed like months Harry had been trekking thought the heavy population of trees and shrubs. He had no clue where he was or where he was going, or if he'd been here already, it all looked the same. His shoes were soaked from crossing a river about an hour before, and he was beginning to get hungry. It was almost impossible to see the sky through the endless canopy of trees, but Harry knew it had been at least 3 days since he'd set into the jungle. He'd whittled his food supply down to a few items left and he was trying to save them in case he really needed them. He could always hunt if he needed food. He had all the spells at his disposal to kill, clean, and cook any poor victim that fell prey to his hunger. He was trying not to have to light a fire to cook any food by night though. The previous night he'd heard a series of howls that seemed too territorial and too low to be that of a mere wolf, Harry didn't know for certain but he was almost positive there were werewolves in these woods. The previous day he'd found the husk of an acromantula that was easily 20 feet tall, almost 3 times the size of the ones that inhabited Hogwarts' forest. It worried him a bit not that there was such a creature in the jungle, but that there was something that could have killed it still out there. He slept in the trees and bushes, trying to avoid the ground or caves at any cost, he had no idea what else was out here. He only traveled by day, and even then he was cautious. Harry heard a twit snap behind him, and he whirled around, wand out, curse on the tip of his tongue. A small deer had wandered into the clearing behind him, and was eating berries from a vine. Harry thought about it for a second, the deer wasn't big enough to make a full meal, and he needed enough food to keep him full for a while, he wouldn't kill an infant animal just to save him some bellyache. **

**Harry pushed on through the jungle, wandering for hours, climbing cliffs and wading through rivers. His robes were torn to shreds by now and his whole body was covered on cuts and bruises and mud. His feet were constantly waterlogged, but he couldn't let it slow him down, he was as determined as ever. **

**Harry knew something had been tracking him for the past few hours and he was determined not to become prey to some beast trying to fill its gut. He'd braved too much in his life to be brought down by a wolf or a big cat. **

**As day quickly turned to night Harry desperately tried to find a tree that had branches low enough for him to climb into. The shrubbery was still too thick for him to be able to fly up, and this island had some kind of magical barrier that prevented anyone from apparating while on it. Harry heard crunching and stopped dead in his tracks, he couldn't tell where it was coming from. **

**Then he heard a noise that made his skin crawl. All at once, from every direction, came a blood curdling, bone chilling howl. Harry could see them coming now he was surrounded, wolves were emerging in every direction from the trees. Not small wolves, big, thick, muscled wolves that stood on 2 legs. Harry had never seen this before, usually they hunted alone, but something was different here, it must have been. Harry was surrounded by a pack of the biggest werewolves he'd ever seen. **


	5. Chapter 5: The Night is Darkest Just

Chapter 5: The night is darkest just before the dawn.

For the first time in a long time, Harry was truly panicking. He was literally staring death in the face. There was no foreseeable way out of this, they were everywhere. Harry's wand was ready in his hand, but he had no idea what to do. He could only hit one, and by the time the curse left his lips the others would be on him. He racked his brain for a massive spell that would hit all of them, but there was no way to hit all of them without badly injuring or killing himself along the way, the only spells he knew were meant to be cast away from the witch or wizard casting the spell. Harry was surrounded, in order to hit all of them he'd have to aim the curse directly at his feet, which would kill all the wolves, but blow him to bits in the process.  
Harry resigned himself to the fact that his end was near, but that didn't mean he had to go without a fight.  
Harry raised his arm and as e predicted as soon as he did they were on him. He flung a silent "Avada Kedavra" at the wolf directly in front of him, hoping his plan would work. To his relief the lead wolf staggered towards him before beginning to drop. Harry rolled underneath it and with all his leverage pushed the lifeless body over and back towards the other wolves. It wouldn't stop him but it would give him the split second he needed. Blindly throwing curses behind him, Harry ran for the cover of the trees. Just as he pulled his arm back he felt massive jaws snap where his wrist had been a split second before. Harry slammed to a stop and rolled sideways, before the pursuing wolf could register what had happened there was a flash of green light and it dropped dead.  
Harry dove behind a tree and stalked through the brush trying to get to a place where he could catch his breath.  
He knew there was no way he'd outrun them, a werewolf would never stop tracking its prey until it caught him or until it was dead, Harry just needed a second to breathe and formulate a plan. There was no plan, there could be no plan, luck had gotten him this far, he'd have to trust it to get him out. Harry had always trusted his instincts and they'd gotten him this far.

Harry crawled into a small clearing in the brush and leaned against a tree, he just needed a second to catch his breath, he wasn't as young as he used to be, and the continuous aches and pains he'd been experiencing lately were a constant reminder.  
Suddenly Harry felt something wet hit him in the shoulder and slide down his arm. He looked up in horror, and had time to raise his wand before the gigantic grey wolf had the opportunity to rip him in two. "SECTUSEMPRA" He screamed as he lunged out of the way, rolling his ankle painfully as he heard the giant wolf crash down the tree behind him. He knew the curse wouldn't kill the wolf but it would slow him down. Harry never looked back as he ran, but he could hear the wolf crying in pain and thrashing on the jungle floor. Crashing clumsily through the brush on his injured ankle, Harry thought about burning the entire jungle down just to get rid of them, but there was no guarantee he wouldn't be trapped in the blaze as well. Harry rounded a corner and felt like he'd been hit by a freight train as a giant brown blur smashed into him. Instinctively he tucked his feet in as he slammed into the ground, catching the wolf in the stomach. He felt a swoosh in the air where the animal's jaws snapped shut an inch from  
His face as he used all the might in both of his legs, to throw the already unstable wolf off of him. Harry screamed in pain as the wolf's entire mass was supported by his injured ankle, but his adrenaline was pumping hard and he managed to kick it about 6 feet in the opposite direction. Gingerly standing up, as he was almost completely unable to support himself on his ankle now, Harry flung a killing curse at the wolf, and before it had even had the chance to regain a standing position, it dropped dead in the thick underbrush of the Roman jungle. Harry knew he barely had any fight left in him, and there were at least 6 more of these things on his tail. Harry knew somewhere deep in the back of his mind, there was a great chance he may not make it through the night.

* * *

Hermione had always been able to tell, no matter how far away he was, if Harry was in danger. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, and she was restless. She spent every day worrying he wasn't coming home this time. He hasn't written in almost a week. No one at the ministry had any clue where he was, there had been no word and no sign of Harry Potter at all, for all everyone knew he really could be dead.  
Hermione constantly pled with the minister to send a search party looking for him, but Cho had regretfully denied her requests, a recent series of serious seemingly unlinked crimes had the ministry baffled, and every auror in the department was on 12 hour shifts trying to put a stop to it. The last couple of days there had been several murders in downtown London, several fires on the outskirts, and a very brutal and very public muggle massacre in the center of the city.  
Cho told Hermione that she really truthfully wished she could spare a team to go look for Harry, "we need him here" she'd told Hermione remorsefully.  
Hermione worried for the safety of  
Not only herself but for her children and her granddaughter, these killings were becoming more frequent and there was no rhyme or reason to them, no way to link them, no apparent agenda but utter chaos.  
Harry would have been able to put a stop to this. If only he would come home.

* * *

Cho Chang buried her head in her hands. She was alone in her big office at the ministry building. Most of her career as minister of magic had been marked by war. War and chaos was all she'd known since she'd been in office. She'd been hailed as the minister who had led to the fall of Voldemort, the minister who had led to the fall of Xanatos. She'd given credit where credit was due, as Harry had been responsible for both of them.  
Cho wasn't sure she would know what to do in an extended time of peace, but she couldn't take the stress anymore of being at war either. She nervously curled her hair around her finger, if Harry was right, when he got back he may very well be bringing a full scale war with him, the size of which hadn't been seen in millennia. Cho didn't know how to react when Harry had first told her where he was going, half of her wanted to think he was going delusional in his old age, but the conviction in his voice when he'd been in her office that day and driven all those thoughts from her mind. Harry was the strongest wizard she'd ever met, and she trusted what he had to say. Harry would never accept such accolades, but he'd been hailed as the next great wizard of the age, he'd been compared to Dumbledore and Merlin himself. People always needed someone to place their hope in, and with the death of Dumbledore they'd chosen Harry. A wise replacement if you asked Cho.

The wizarding world wasn't ready for another war, not on the scale Harry had described. If he was right this was going to be a global war that would end in complete obliteration, and Cho had no idea how she was even going to bring this to the attention of the community at large. How do you even begin to go in front of your friends and family and the community that you are largely responsible for and tell them that there is a global catastrophe at hand? One that makes every trial they've ever faced seem irrelevant. Cho just placed her hope in Harry that it wouldn't come to that, that he would do what he always did and come to the rescue before it was too late, but she was beginning to wonder if this was too big even for him.

* * *

Harry limped through the woods, knowing he was pushing himself, he'd done everything he could for his ankle but it really needed some rest. He hadn't sat down in hours; he could still hear the howls, and the trees crashing distantly behind him. He'd gained a significant distance from the monsters that were hunting him, but he didn't know how much fight he had left in him, or when the time came if he could even muster the strength to bring down his remaining adversaries. The fact that he'd even survived this long was a miracle, when faced with even one werewolf very few wizards escaped with their lives. Harry had been attacked by a pack of 12 and brought at least 8 of them down. He'd killed 2 more in the previous hours, and his energy was depleted. He needed food, and he needed sleep. He had no idea where he was, or where in this god forsaken jungle his objective was, but he knew for the sake of her family he wasn't going to die on this island.

Harry slowed his pace to catch his breath. Every part of his body was aching, screaming at him to stop. His ankle felt dead, his ribs were shooting pain, and he could barely breathe, he hadn't put this much physical effort out in years. His determination kept him going though, he'd trained for this and he'd fought bigger more hopeless battles than this before, he wasn't going to give up now. Harry heard something crashing through the trees not far behind him and he flung himself behind the closest tree praying they wouldn't smell him. By some fluke they didn't, 3 of them rushed by his hiding place without a second glance. Harry realized they were just as tired as he was. If he could just make it to daylight he would be safe, they couldn't be out in the sunlight they'd transform back to their human forms and then he'd be safe to rest for a while.  
Harry quietly turned to head the other direction when he heard them stop. They were still close enough he could hear the leader sniffing the air. After a second the giant reddish wolf let loose a blood curdling howl. And Harry heard the response from the other wolf somewhere deeper in the forest. This told him 2 things. 1) His calculations had been right, there were only 4 left, and 2) he'd been found. Injured or no Harry had to push through it, he ran, full force, not caring if they heard him or not. He had about a 20 second head start, but he knew they'd still catch him. He was going to have to fight like it or not.  
Harry saw a white blur fly past him as one of the creatures flew onto the tree ahead of him, not even stopping he jerked his wand in it's direction. A flash of green collided with the albino wolf and it crashed to the ground, a lifeless mound of flesh and fur. Harry looked over his shoulder as he kept running, one of the 2 on his tail jumped from a tree to try to tackle him to the ground. Adding a quick calculation in his head Harry dragged his feet to a stop so abrupt he almost tell over, the wolf flew past him and hit the ground where he would have been if he hadn't stopped. The wolf was dead before it realized it had been outsmarted, and Harry veered off course into some thicker brush. Harry nearly tripped over a root at least five feet thick and in the time it took him to regain his balance he'd been hit from behind and toppled over falling down a hill, his attacker rolling just as uncontrollably as he was. Harry didn't know how much more abuse his body could take. He pushed himself up, realizing he had no clue where his wand had gone. He spotted it shortly and as he bent over to pick it up he found himself thrown to the ground again as the wolf smashed its arm into his chest. Harry had a split second as it jumped on him, to shove his wand literally in the mouth of the enemy "organa eruptus!" He yelled and the wolf shuddered for a second before its head exploded. Harry closed his eyes as the wave of guts and brain matter plastered itself all over his face and down the front of his tattered robes. Pushing the carcass off of himself, he stood up. He was drained, he needed rest, now, there was no more fight left in him, and he couldn't run either. Harry estimated there was only an hour left before daylight; if he could make it that long without running into the last remaining wolf he would be ok, at least until the sun set again.

Harry slumped against a nearby tree. He was done running, he had to stop. The other wolf had been far enough away before he'd been chased that hopefully all the running, and falling down the ravine had gotten him out of its searching distance. He knew the creature would find him eventually, he just hoped it wasn't tonight. Harry summoned his bag from where it had fallen off when he'd fell, and it flew into his shaking outstretched hand. He rummaged around in it for a second and pulled out the last of the food he had in his bag, meaning soon he was going to have to hunt.  
Harry couldn't help wondering if it had been the pack of werewolves that had killed the giant acromantula he'd seen in his first few days on the island, or it there was anything worse in store for him.  
He grimaced as he pulled his pant legs up to above his ankle, it was bad, the ankle was swollen to the size of a snitch, and completely purple. Harry quietly and carefully preformed a few field medical charms on his ankle to reduce the swelling and ease the pain. It wouldn't completely heal it, but with a few hours rest, Harry would be able to walk again. The sun was starting to peak over the trees now and Harry knew he was safe to try and rest some now. He gingerly climbed as low on the tree as he could to be a safe distance above the ground, cast a few charms on the thickest branch he could find, to make sure he wouldn't fall, and make it a little more comfortable, and then he quickly drifted to sleep.

* * *

Hermione was horrified about what she was seeing on the television. The world wizarding news network had been called in at nearly two o clock in the morning to do an emergency broadcast.  
Just over three hours ago, a quite large group of hooded wizards had entered the ministry building in London, and without even a word, had started flinging curses and hexes in every direction they could find. The atrium was in shambles, there had been a large full scale battle that had lasted almost the full  
Length of the three hours. "Group" is an inaccurate word, the wizards just kept coming in through the flu grates, and no one could get close enough to shut them. In the end it seems a small army had in fact invaded the ministry. Hermione was utterly mortified at the devastation. There were bodies everywhere. Very few people who had been working tonight had made it out alive. This invasion had been planned, and it had been precise. Literally hundreds of ministry employees would not be going home to their families tonight, and those that would, were in utter disbelief. The ministry had never been directly attacked, not even Voldemort had been that brave.  
Hermione didn't know what to think, this was a bold strike and it was too organized to just be random criminals. As the list of the dead scrolled by on the television Hermione couldn't help but sob as she saw so many people she knew, people she'd gone to school with, people shed known her whole life, just slaughtered like animals for no reason at all.  
She supposed maybe it was a good thing Harry wasn't home, if he'd been here he would have been at work, and as great as he was, even Harry couldn't have held off that attack. Hermione knew he was still alive, she knew in her heart of hearts that if Harry had been killed she would know. She'd been linked to Harry for over 30 years. Since the first time she'd met him on that train 30 years ago she had loved him. There was no way she wouldn't know if something had happened to him.

Hermione was startled from her thoughts as she heard the door to the mansion slam open. She jumped from the couch, wand in hand, ready to curse the first person to come through the doors of the living room where she'd been sitting.  
After waiting for what seemed like forever Hermione saw the door handle move. The door opened just a crack, and Hermione could see the tip of a wand poke through. She scooted to the side to avoid any spells that would be coming out. Her heart was thudding in her chest; it had been a long time since she'd had to fight anyone.  
Green sparks flew out of the tip of the wand and to Hermione's relief she heard a familiar voice "mom if  
You're in here don't kill me, it's mark"

* * *

"Mom, we have to get out of here it's not safe anymore" mark said to his mother, who for the past half hour insisted that she wasn't going anywhere, she was still holding on to hope that Harry would come home and she didn't want him to come home to an empty house and have no clue where to look.  
"I promised dad I would keep you safe at all costs" mark said stubbornly,"lets go". Hermione looked her 24 year old son in the eyes. He looked so much like his father. Identical actually. She really felt like she was looking at a younger version of her husband. She knew mark was just trying to keep her safe, but he had forgotten she knew how to take care of herself. "I'm stronger than you think mark, I can hold my own" she said to her son, hoping that would be the last of it. "God damnit mom" mark  
Said angrily "then be strong and make the hard decision, you have got to leave. London is going to hell real quick, we have to get out of here." Hermione knew he was right but she still didn't want to leave. The next thing Hermione knew holly appeared in the door way with a bag. "Here's everything she needs" Hermione's daughter in law said, throwing the bag to mark. "I love you" holly said to mark as he grabbed his mother's arm. And before Hermione had time to register what was going on, mark ha disapparated, taking Hermione with him.

* * *

Thunder shook the walls startling Ray Duncan from his sleep. He looked out the window through the bars. All Ray could see outside for miles and miles was ocean, and it was a very angry ocean tonight, but that wasn't really an unusual sight to a guard at Azkaban prison.

Ray didn't know how long he'd been asleep but he figured he'd better  
make his rounds, his shift was over in less than two hours and he needed to wake himself up.

It was always eerie around this place on the graveyard shift. Whenever you walked into the cell blocks you could always hear the prisoners screaming in their sleep. Even the low security cells that weren't guarded by dementors, the prisoners were always gaunt and haunted by their pasts.  
Even the guards, who had been here for years, had lost pieces of themselves along the way. This place held too many nightmares to not take some of them home with you.  
But what Duncan didn't know was that tonight would be his last at Azkaban prison.

Out of nowhere the ground started shaking, hard enough that it knocked Duncan off his feet. He scrambled to get up but it was a hopeless venture, everything was shaking, pieces of the ceiling were falling in, everything was going to hell. Duncan was dumbfounded there hadn't been an earthquake at Azkaban in the whole time he'd worked here, and this one was going to bring the building down. Sirens were going off, and guards were running everywhere. Duncan could feel the happiness being sucked out of the room as it grew quickly colder and colder. They'd released the dementors. Duncan finally managed to scramble to his feet and staggered to the nearest cell block. Looking through the window in the door he could see that most, if not all of the cells had been opened in the damage of the earthquake. This was going to get bad, quickly.

* * *

Duncan rushed down an empty hallway, the entire cell block was empty, and the prisoners were gone. What in Merlin's heard was going on? First the attack at the ministry, and now a mass breakdown of the prison? Tonight really couldn't get any worse.  
Duncan rounded a corner and came to an abrupt stop; he was face to face with a small group of prisoners.  
The lead smiled a toothy grin at Duncan and spoke "wotcher Duncan it's a shame you're working tonight, I always liked you" Macnair was still bulked out entirely in muscle, even after 15 years in this place, it didn't seem to have drained him how it did the other prisoners, but then Macnair had always thrived on the despair of others so this place probably gave him comfort. Before Duncan knew what was happening Macnair stepped towards him and in one deft motion snapped the guard's neck.  
His body collapsed motionlessly to the floor, and Macnair retrieved the wand from lifeless fingers.  
"Well chaps" Macnair said, "What do you say we get out of here and pay our old friend Mr. Potter a visit? We never got to properly thank him for putting us in here did we?"


End file.
